Page 30 of Lacey's Warriors

Roxy shifted away from Cormac with a frown darkening her already deep brown eyes. “The, uh, sire wanted nothing to do with the child, and Lacey hates him.”

Gwarnon, still heady with shock, asked, “Was it the soldier or the boy?”

“The boy.”

“I shall gut him myself,” Gwarnon muttered.

Chel slipped his arm around Gwarnon’s waist, giving him his quiet strength. “But, first, we must find our bride.”

“It won’t be easy,” Roxy warned them as Gwarnon mentally worked on rebuilding the cage that surrounded his inner beast, his madness. “She believes you’ll try to take her daughter away from her. She’ll run, and hide, and do everything in her power to avoid you. I know she doesn’t hate you, and I know she wants to be with you, but her daughter will always come first.”

“As it should be,” Chel said as all the men nodded. “I would expect nothing less from myalyah. But you should have told us. We could have assured you both that children are always allowed to come with their mothers, even from Earth. We are not monsters. We would not force you to leave your offspring behind.”

“But you do force us to leave everyone else we love, so how could Lacey have guessed that?”

All four men looked guilty as Nosa said, “You are right. Earth Matriarchs make an enormous sacrifice by agreeing to be our bondmates. Even acknowledging that, we cannot go against the galactic protocols. Imagine if we allowed brides to bring their families with them? How big of an impact would it have on your world, to have hundreds of millions of people suddenly vanish? It could devastate your planet.”

“I know. Logically, I understand, but I won’t lie and pretend the thought of never seeing my family—of them never knowing our children—doesn’t make me terribly sad.”

Gwarnon leaned closer so he could whisper to Chel, “We have a daughter.”

Blinking at him, Chel’s smile was tentative, his eyes still wet with tears. “We do. But Lacey still left us.”

Shaking his head, he whispered, “It does not make any sense. Lacey’s crystal implant must have let her know that children are always welcome to come with the mother. That we consider them our children as well.”

Chel laced his fingers together with Gwarnon’s, his worry scratching along their bond. “But she didn’t have that crystal implant until recently. Her reluctance to bond makes sense now, as does the odd sadness that always seemed to shadow her heart. I cannot believe we were so oblivious.”

“She hid it from us well,” Gwarnon felt a bit of pride stirring in his chest, pushing back the darkness in his heart. “A true Warrior, she did whatever she could to protect her child.”

Chel touched his forehead to Gwarnon’s for a moment, his sigh heavy. “We really, as Lady Casey likes to say, screwed the pooch on this one.”

“If that means we made grave mistakes, you are correct. But now is not the time to review the past, as the future needs our focus. We must find Lacey before she goes through the wormhole. Contact the Baladium and ask them what type of ship they are using, and for a tracking number. While I hope they will stop at the Kadothian wormhole station and await a transfer, I doubt Lacey will want to go through official channels. She will want to use a smuggler to get her through. I will start checking with my sources to see if she contacted any of them.”

Looking over his shoulder to find an anxious Roxy watching them, Gwarnon said, “We are going after her, and we beg you for your help.”

Chapter 9

Lacey

Her forehead itched, a little piece of hair swaying back and forth, just enough to irritate. Thickness filled her thoughts, the drugging lure of sleep begging her to return to her inert state. She was tired, so very tired. Surely she could rest just a little longer.

Except that damn hair kept tickling her skin.

And her mind kept sending electrical impulses to her hand, which twitched, but didn’t move from her side.

Frowning, she struggled to open her uncooperative eyelids.

A blurry, unfamiliar room came into sight, and she wrenched her head to the side, forcing her stiff neck muscles to move. Sloped, deep blue walls that had an odd pearlescent sheen made up a small room that reminded her of the command center on Gwarnon’s ship. Immediately, her heart began to hammer in her chest as she sucked in a quick breath.Gwarnon’s ship.She should still be on it.

While she was alone in the room, she was also bound to a comfortable black chair wearing a loose fitting washed out lime green dress that had slits up the sides and long sleeves that draped down over her hands.

The fabric protected her wrists from harm as she struggled with her bonds, unable to see what held her.

Tears burned as she wondered if she’d been kidnapped again. The last thing she’d remembered was falling asleep with Gwarnon and Chel, the silken cradle of their long hair covering her body like the softest blanket she’d ever felt. Then the door had chimed, but the men hadn’t woken up. Figuring they were exhausted, she answered it to find Orushel and a Kadothian male she didn’t recognize with red and purple streaked hair standing there.

Then…nothing.

A change in air pressure was the only warning she got before the man with the short red and purple spiked hair strode into the room. His pale gold skin caught the light with a pretty luminescence the women of Earth would have paid a fortune to achieve. She braced herself, waiting to hear what ill fate had befallen her. Was she kidnapped by a slaver again? Someone who’d want to hold her for ransom? Or some other incredibly terrible fate that she couldn’t even imagine.

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